ARCHAISMS, OR OBSOLETE AND UNUSUAL WORDS OR PHRASES, IN THE ENGLISH BIBLE.

BY REV. HOWARD CROSBY, D.D., LL.D.,

Chancellor of the University of New York.

The literature of a language serves to check its changes, but not to stop them. A living language must grow, and in the growth new words not only supply new ideas, but become substitutes for old words. The English of the fourteenth century had to be read with a glossary in the sixteenth century; but the three hundred years that have elapsed since Queen Elizabeth have not so altered the language as the preceding two centuries had done. The abundant literature of the latter period accounts for this difference, our English Bible of 1611 having probably had the most influence in this result.

It is not the archaisms of our English Bible which constitute the most important reason for a revised translation. Erroneous or obscure renderings form a far more conspicuous argument. But yet it is very true that there are many words and phrases in the received version which the ordinary reader would be likely to misunderstand, the words themselves having become obsolete, or their significations (or modes of spelling) having undergone a change. We append the following as specimens:

I. CHANGE IN SPELLING. "The fats shall overflow with wine and oil" (Joel ii, 24), for "vats." "Lest he hale thee to the judge" (Luke xii, 58), for "haul," and "hoised up the mainsail to the wind" (Acts xxvii,

40), for "hoisted." "He overlaid their chapiters with gold" (Ex. xxxvi, 38), for " capitals." "And sat down astonied" (Ezra ix, 3), for "astonished." "Or ever the earth was" (Prov. viii, 23), for "ere." So we find bewray (betray), magnifical (magnificent), and delicates (delicacies). Many of these archaisms in spelling have been omitted in more modern editions of our version, as leese for "lose," sith for "since," cloke for "cloak." The old plural "hosen," however, still remains, in Dan. iii, 21, for "hose."

II. OBSOLETE WORDS.-" And they shall pass through it, hardly bestead" (Isa. viii, 21), for "served." "Besides that which chapmen and merchants brought" (2 Chron. ix, 14), for "market-men." "Old shoes and clouted upon their feet" (Josh. ix, 5); "took thence old cast clouts" (Jer. xxxviii, 11), for "patched" and "patches." "Neither is there any daysman betwixt us" (Job ix, 33), for "umpire." "Thou shalt make them to be set in ouches of gold" (Ex. xxviii, 11), for "sockets." "Doves tabering upon their breasts" (Nahum ii, 7), for "drumming." "The lion filled his dens with ravin" (Nahum ii, 12), for "plunder." "He made fifty taches of gold" (Ex. xxxvi, 13), for "catches." So earing (ploughing), eschew (shun), habergeon (coat of mail), hough (hamstring), kine (cows), and leasing (lying). We may add to these many of the names of animals, precious stones, etc., as giereagle, ossifrage, behemoth, leviathan (these last two being the Hebrew words untranslated), sardius, ligure, bdellium.

III. WORDS OBSOLETE IN THEIR SIGNIFICATIONS.These are the most numerous and most important of Bible archaisms, because they are likely to be unno

ticed, and the reader will thus form a wrong notion of the meaning of a statement. The manifest archaisms will always set one upon his guard, and lead him to investigate; but these words, having a perfectly familiar look, suggest no need of inquiry. Who would imagine that Ezekiel, saying, "as an adamant, harder than flint" (Ezek. iii, 9), and Zechariah, saying, "they made their hearts as an adamant stone," both referred to a "diamond"? The Hebrew word here translated "adamant" is translated "diamond" in Jer. xvii, 1. The abjects, in Ps. xxxv, 15, are the "dregs of the people." The apothecary, in Ex. xxx, 25, 35; xxxvii, 29, and Eccl. x. 1, is not our druggist, or preparer of medicines, but simply a "maker of unguents." Aha, in Ps. xxxv, 21, and many other places, is not an exclamation of one catching another in evil (as it now is used), but of one exulting over an enemy, and is equivalent to our "hurrah!" Admired and admiration, in 2 Thess. i, 10, Jude 16, and Rev. xvii, 6, have the old meaning of "wondered at" and "wonder," and not the modern one of delighted appreciation. Affect, in Gal. iv, 17, has the signification of "seek after zealously" (the Latin "affectare," rather than "afficere"). The passage means, "They, seek after you, but not well; yea, they would shut you out from us, that ye might seek after them; but it is good to be sought after* always in a good thing." The Greek verb is nλów, "to desire emulously," "to strive after." In Judges ix, 53, "all to brake his skull" is usually understood as if it were "all to break his skull," i. e., " in order to break," whereas, "all to" is archaic for "thoroughly," or

*Perhaps the middle sense "to be impelled by zeal " is correct here.

"completely." Atonement, in the Old Testament, is the translation of the Hebrew "chopher," a ransom, or a cover for sins. See Ex. xxix, 36, and forty or fifty other places. But it really means "at-one-ment," or "reconciliation," the result of the ransom or cover. In the New Testament the word occurs only once (Rom. v, 11), where it means "reconciliation," (Greek, xaraλλayýv;) but this meaning is now obsolete. The modern botch is used exclusively for a clumsy patch or job; but in Deut. xxviii, 27, it means "ulcer." Bravery, in Isa. iii, 18, signifies "splendor." Who recognizes in the camphire of Solomon's Song i, 14 and iv, 13 (which suggests camphor!) the sweet-smelling "cypress"? and who imagines that the caterpillar of the Old Testament is a locust with wings? The charger, in Num. vii, 13 and Matt. xiv, 8, is a dish, and not a horse; the ladder of Gen. xxviii, 12 is a staircase; the turtle of Solomon's Song ii, 12, and Jer. viii, 7, is not a tortoise, but a dove; and the nephews of Jud. xii, 14; 1 Tim. v. 4; Job xviii, 19; Isa. xiv, 22, are grandsons. The pommels of 2 Chron. iv, 12 have nothing to do with saddles, but are "globes" resting on the summits of the columns. The word quick" is almost always misunderstood in Ps. cxxiv, 3, "they had swallowed us up quick," as if it meant "rapidly." The passage means, "they had swallowed us up alive." Prevent, in Scripture means, "not prevent" (i. e., anticipate), and let means "not let " (i. e., hinder), so completely have these words turned over in signification. The latter is still used in law phrase as "hinder." Deal, in "tenth deal" (Ex. xxix, 40), means "part." Outlandish, in Neh. xiii, 26, means simply "foreign." Its modern meaning is "clownish.' The fenced cities of Num. xxxii, 17, are "walled "

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cities, and the hold of Judges ix, 46; 1 Sam. xxii, 4, stronghold." We use "peep" for the eyes almost altogether; but in Isa. viii, 19; x, 14, it is used of the mouth-"the wizards that peep." The same word is translated "chatter" in Isa. xxxviii, 14. Intreat. (which with us means "beseech") is used for "treat," as in Gen. xii, 16. Ensue (French, ensuivre) is read in 1 Pet. iii, 11 for "pursue." Evidently and comprehend are now used of mental conditions, but in the Bible we find them used of physical conditions. "He saw in a vision evidently" (i. e., clearly), Acts x, 3; "comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure (i. e., grasped), Isa. xl, 12; so John i, 5.

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Conversation, in Scripture, never refers to speech, but always means manner or course of life." Curious mistakes have been made even in the pulpit, by not observing this. Comfort, in the present use, signifies "soothing;" but in old English it had the force of the Latin confortare, and meant "strengthening." "Comfort one another with these words," in 1 Thess. iv, 18, is equal to "strengthen one another," etc. Damn and damnation are simply "condemn " and "condemnation," as in Rom. xiv, 23 and 1 Cor. xi, 29. "They shall dote," in Jer. 1, 36, is "they shall become foolish." In Zech. i, 21, the carpenters came to fray the horns, and the reader supposes that this must mean "to plane" or "to saw;" but it means only "to frighten." Honest (Rom. xii, 17) and honesty (1 Tim. ii, 2) have not their present meanings, but are equivalent to our "honorable" and "honor." So modest (1 Tim. ii, 9) is our "moderate" or seemly." Unction, in 1 John ii, 20, has the meaning of "anointing" (spiritually considered), while our modern use of unction is rather as 66 earnestness.' Vocation (Eph. iv, 1)

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